Voting: Mail-in Ballots are a good idea? Really?

This arrived today.

Every time my mail-in ballot comes into the outside mailbox I am set to wondering.

What if someone opened the mailbox and took mine out. Would I notice the absence?

Well, yes, because I am living in part of my daughter’s house, and she and her husband also receive ballots. But what if all three had been swiped by someone who thought voting should be left up to people who “know what’s right for the county/country.” I suppose we would eventually wonder why we didn’t get ballots. We did get the Voter’s Pamphlet.

Again– I am glad to say that I monitor the mailbox pretty carefully, and sort of know when the mail-carrier comes each day. There have been raidings of such mailboxes in the neighborhood from time to time. Nothing lately, but that doesn’t say that the problem is solved.

So today I was wondering whether nursing homes get massive deliveries to elderly or disabled citizens who live there. Does the mail today come in a white mail tub to these places and sit at the front desk or in an office until someone sorts through it and delivers it to the patients?

What a wonderful opportunity for a ne’er do well “patriot” doing what they may think is their moral duty to see that the next election goes a certain way?

I mean people will go to really nervy lengths to sway political agendas, and the world seems to be jumping with citizen uprisings for one or another “good cause”. People are willing to go to jail for their ardent opinions! It is called “citizen privilege” to speak out and act out in the name of “The People”. People take these things seriously in certain veins of activist participation.

Suppose a fanatic at a nursing home would just fill out the voter ballots themselves, sign the wobbly names of old or disabled people, put stamps on the envelopes and put them all in the outgoing mail?

The possibilities are endless.

Are there other group-living set ups where a livid patriot could take advantage of a pile of ballots and send them in to the mail system where they will be duly delivered to the tabulators of official votes?

Who would know?

I’m just asking. As I also ask if tabulating machines can differentiate between genuine one-person-one-vote actions and batch submissions of such ballots. And also whether those people sitting at the tables are all spotlessly guileless. Or did they have a meeting, some of them, and make plans?

More and more, I think we need to set up the traditional polls. Have people GO THERE in person, account for their presence (with some sort of ID) and then have their finger dipped in indelible ink that will last, oh about two weeks, purple-ly on their hand. No mail-in ballots. Instead, have a cadre of officials deliver ballots on a given day to a nursing home and take the ballots one-by-one from the hands of the residents. Putting purple ink on those people’s fingers.

If the current interest in mass fingerprinting ID systems leads to us being imprinted in this way for the government’s reasons becomes a reality, then we could even put our fingerprint on our ballot with that same purple ink=ed finger. Then put it into the old-fashioned ballot box (cemented to the polling-place floor, perhaps) and go out having done our duty.

Ugly to have a purple finger? Too much like the foreign nations that use this system for Americans? I don’t know. Just because it’s “foreign” to us doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea. Why do you suppose they use that system in foreign countries? They do know about voting fraud, that’s why. Yes, it may sound paranoid, but human nature being what it is, wouldn’t it be worth it to know who is doing what in the polling system?

We wear red white and blue on the Fourth of July. Why not purple on voting day? A proud proof of voting!

Or would the nursing home felons dip the patients fingers in purple ink to cover their tracks?

I trust computers in much the same way as I trust the US Mail Voting set-up.

Even good-looking mail personnel can turn out to be chiselers and criminals. I worked for the Post Office for eleven years and was astonished to see some of my fellow workers taken to court (Federal Court) for thefts and mishandling of mail. It can happen. There are weak links in all systems. The human link is the most flexible one.

And people can rationalize fraud if it’s done “for a good cause.” This is NOT the American Way!!